Quote:
Originally Posted by screwballl
This is not a PHYSICAL PAPER copy of a book, it is electronic/digital code. A library buys access to the ebook and lends it out. They do not buy access to 5 ebooks, they buy access to computer code that is transferred with a limited timeframe of usage to an electronic device. Doesn't matter if it is 2 people or 200 people at a time, it is code, not paper.
It is not a matter of a limitation of copies because there is no physical media, it is all 1s and 0s. As a long time computer tech, I know how technology works, and a limitation like this has to be the dumbest thing anyone could think of.
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What part of "The library
buys books" is not clear to you?
They can lend as many as they have
purchased, regardless of whether the book is paper or electronic.
If the library buys, say, 50 copies of an ebook, and 100 patrons all want to borrow it, the first 50 patrons to try get it, and the other 50 wait for it to be returned. The library
cannot simply create more copies to lend just because it's easy to do so.
Unauthorized duplication and distribution of a paid for ebook is
theft, and libraries don't
do that.
(And most libraries don't host the ebooks themselves. They go through a vendor called Overdrive, and Overdrive actually provides the downloaded copy, and tracks which library it was borrowed from and how many copies that library purchased and has available to lend. If you read the earlier portion of the thread, you'll see that it wasn't the Philadelphia Free Library that was down, it was Overdrive. The PFL site was up and running fine. The feed from Overdrive that supplied the downloadable ebooks was overwhelmed.)
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Dennis